Tradecrafts: Expanded Rules & Advice

Introduction

Tradecrafts are an important part of the game: above all else, they open up more possible choices and information for a party to act on in almost all game situations. Particularly in Falnorian, tradecrafts are often key to solving a situation or gaining access to critical knowledge, and are on par with class skills and abilities in terms of their usefulness in the game. Because of this, Falnorian has developed a rich tradecraft system to support their use in the game. Since the rulebook has limited space to describe these systems, the following post (as well as future posts on each trade category) expands on the writeups in the rulebook as well as provides some advice for using tradecrafts to their fullest potential.

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Rules for Tradecrafts

Sub-Crafts
Many tradecrafts have additional sub-crafts that they encompass. Performing Arts, for example, includes the sub-crafts Musician, Theater Arts, Dance, and so on. When putting levels in a craft, you can usually choose to instead put levels into a sub-craft if you desire.  This has both the advantages and disadvantages of narrowness: a sub-craft will generally be more directly useful and applicable when it is needed, but it will be applicable less often. Sub-crafts usually grant some proficiency with their overarching tradecraft – and vice versa – but not to the same degree as a full level in the given craft would allow.

Level Scaling
Falnorian uses a scaled system (rather than a hit-or-miss system) for tradecraft use. This means that the closer together the tradecraft level and the DC for the task are, the more effective the tradecraft is. For example, when using courtier vs. a lvl 10 target, even though a lvl 2 and lvl 9 courtier are both unlikely to elicit a friendly interaction with the target, the lvl 9 courtier may have at least a polite interaction rather than the downright cold interaction the lvl 2 courtier may receive.

The converse of scaling is also true: the further apart the tradecraft level and the DC for the task, the more ineffective the tradecraft will be. For example, if you are trying to follow an experienced tracker (say lvl 45 in tracking), a lvl 15 tracker may at least be able to tell that a trail has been covered up; a lvl 2 tracker may be unable to tell that there was ever someone in the area at all.

Stacking (Group)
If multiple people in the party have the same tradecraft, characters can stack their levels in that tradecraft to get more out of it. This represents the way that experience in a subject varies widely, and that although there is a certain level of foundational knowledge that everyone will pick up, an individual person’s knowledge will differ from another’s based on their training and experiences or simply their own interests.

However, as they say, too many cooks spoils the broth – and having too many people stacking gets in the way of using the craft productively, due in part to too much redundant or overlapping knowledge. Because of this, tradecrafts stack at a diminishing rate of one-half; the first person stacks at their full levels, the second at 1/2 their levels, the third at 1/4 their levels, and so on until you reach 1*. Once you reach an addition of one level, you cannot stack with any more people.
*If you have a number that doesn’t divide into a whole number, always round down until you get one. Example: someone with 5 lvls stacking at 1/4 only adds 1 lvl to the stack.

In general, you always stack from highest-level to lowest-level in order to get the most out of your stack. The exception to this is if a party member has a tradecraft fluency relevant to the topic at hand: in that case, it’s often better to have them lead the stack because their fluency will help guide the rest of the stack towards a better outcome.

Fluencies
Fluencies represent mastery in a particular subject within a tradecraft. It comes from the idea of being “fluent” in a language under scribe, which traditionally happened at 5 lvls in Scribe. At the present, for every 5 lvls you gain in a tradecraft, you gain a fluency for a topic within that craft. Fluencies represent a subject within your tradecraft that you are more knowledgeable in or have more practice in, either due to an area of particular interest to you or simply to the kinds of work you have done with your craft. Just as, in the real world, though three people might study the same general subject (eg, biology), their practical knowledge may cover three different topics within the broader category (ie: cells, viruses, zoology, evolution, etc).

Fluencies are a soft modifier rather than a hard one; they do not add any multipliers for your effective levels in the craft, but are instead factored by the GM in a multitude of other ways. Characters with a fluency are more likely not only to know more information within their fluency, but also to receive more complete answers if their levels aren’t quite high enough for the task they are attempting; they are also more likely to be able to tell what exactly they don’t know – and what they need to get it.

Once a character has five fluencies in a craft (at 25 lvls), they gain a mastery for it. A mastery is a unique creation that represents the cumulative work of all of your fluencies.  Masteries are negotiated with the GM and must incorporate only elements within your fluencies – and, ideally, will touch on all of them. Masteries vary by trade category:

• Artisan: Creation of a unique item design or other piece of work.
• Scholar: Answer to a complicated or obscure research question.
• Mediator: Connection to a particular person, group, or network.
• Survivalist: Discover or make use of a new resource (broadly defined).

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Tradecraft Advice

Tradecraft Symbyosis
Some tradecrafts work well together and can help support each other when used together. Tracking and Area Search is an example of such a pair: tracking helps follow a target over distances while area search finds clues within a close range, and using them together you may discover more detail than you would have with either alone. Courtier and Innkeeper are another set that pair well together – as people are more likely to give information to people they are friendly with. Tradecrafts that work well together can become more than the sum of their parts and may give you more detail than one would alone. Just make sure to mention that you’re using both of them – bonus points if you can explain how you’re using them to support each other.

The Power of 1 Lvl
Having a single level in a tradecraft – though it will typically still give you very limited success with a task – is worlds better than having no levels at all. At the minimum, having a level in a tradecraft will typically tell you that there’s something there to find, even if you don’t know what it is; it may also give you some low-level information or results if there is any there to be had. A single tradecraft level will also generally be able to give you broad “yes” and “no” answers to questions about the state of the subject, even if they do not give you more specific details.

If nothing else, having a single level means that the GM can give you something when a hint they meant for the party to find might otherwise go unnoticed.

What Tradecrafts to Choose
There are three major factors to keep in mind when picking tradecrafts for your character: what tradecrafts suit them, what tradecrafts already exist in the party, and what kinds of tradecrafts are likely to be useful in the current location and storyline. Making a good choice of tradecraft generally means balancing these three elements well – keeping in mind that various situations may mean a different balance between the three.

Character is the simplest factor to consider. There are a few choices to consider here: what your character’s build is; what crafts they’ll be receiving from their class, and what crafts will supplement their class craft well; and what your character themselves is interested in. While there may not be a practical reason for a character to take a tradecraft, story and roleplay reasons can be just as compelling and can be a great way to express who your character is as a person.

Party is a more complicated factor, but an important one. It’s important to have some tradecraft overlap in a party: tradecraft overlap not only allows for stacking to higher effective levels, but also means that if the primary craft-keeper is unavailable – captured, not on that mission, or their player simply not present at the event – someone still has that base covered. On the other hand, tradecraft diversity is good: it’s helpful to pick up tradecrafts that no one else has in order to ensure the party has access to them, and too much overlap can lead to redundancy. The sweet spot for balancing these factors changes season to season; a good rule of thumb is that during seasons with a broad goal or story having diverse tradecrafts is best, and druring a season with a focused goal or story, it works well to keep the party’s tradecrafts highly concentrated.

Season – the pairing of location and story – is the final factor. It’s helpful to choose tradecrafts that align well with both factors; if you choose a tradecraft that has little relevance to what’s going on in a given season, it will tend to be less useful less often. When picking tradecrafts, consider what kind of missions you are likely to be going on: if you are located out in the wilderness you are likely to need to do a lot of tracking, hunting etc, and if you’re located in an urban center you can be sure that trader and innkeeper will serve you well. If the season’s story appears to be leaning a divine direction, picking up some priest levels might be wise; if it appears to be leaning more in the direction of court politics, diplomat and courtier would be equally wise choices. Pay mind to what’s going down in the world right now and plan accordingly.

What Fluencies to Choose
Like tradecrafts themselves, when picking fluencies it may be useful for players to consider their character, the party, and the location and story. More so than tradecrafts, it’s advantageous to pick fluencies that other party members do not have: doing so allows the party as a whole to cover more ground and helps distinguish your character from others with similar skillsets. This is helpful both in terms of being another way to express your character and what their particular interests and history are; and it can give you an edge in engaging with certain parts of a location or story.

A good rule of thumb for picking fluencies is to consider what you’ve already been using that tradecraft for: if you’ve been using your cartographer levels to map dungeons then a fluency in dungeons might be in order, but if you’ve been using it to survey the local land then a fluency in distances or elevation might make more sense. Alternatively, you might have been using your cartographer levels to use maps rather than make them – in which case, a fluency in map reading might be in order.

When to Use Tradecrafts
Tradecrafts are intended for out of combat use (excepting a bard’s combat craft skill); which is to say, (1) please don’t use them in combat, and (2) please use them any time there’s not combat! This includes both during non-combative encounters and also during the intermission period between encounters – though with the latter, keep in mind that you generally only have time to make one action each. Some more specific guidelines include:

• Tradecraft Reminders: When consistently using a tradecraft (such as tracking), make sure to mention it each encounter so that the GM is reminded to continue factoring it. Tradecrafts that aren’t called are generally assumed not to be used. The same goes for tradecrafts during a roleplay; if you are using courtier, it’s helpful to occasionally punctuate your statements with a reminder of your courtier level.
  • A word of caution: if you use a tradecraft too often, it tends to start to work against you – using the courtier example, if you’re constantly calling courtier, your character is almost certainly coming off too strong! Similarly, if you’re using tracking too often, you may start to get “noise” or junk information from looking too hard for clues where there are none. State it at the beginning of an interaction, and then repeat it only during the most key or important moments.
• Relevance: Look for cues that your tradecraft might be relevant. For example, if you are a stonemason, any time there are buildings or structures involved, you might have an opportunity to gain some insight using that craft; but if you’re standing out in the middle of an open field, it’s unlikely.
  • A word of caution: while it’s often worth checking once “just in case” even during unlikely situations, using an irrelevant tradecraft repeatedly tends to bug the GM and starts to waste the party’s time – and as such is generally inadvisable.
• Often!: Lastly, use tradecrafts often! To reiterate from the beginning, tradecrafts in Falnorian are just as important as class skills. Any time you’re not sure what to do, using your tradecraft levels is usually not a bad way to start.